Kisumu is on Lake Victoria, 350 kilometres north-west of Nairobi. The cemetery is on the north-western side of the town on the road to the Busia border post with Uganda. The dirt road to the cemetery is to the left (west) of the road out of Kisumu about 300 metres past the entrance to Kisumu airport. The dirt road to the cemetery runs between the Ministry of Works Depot and the Caltex petrol station.

This is a civil cemetery used for War burials (chiefly by No. 4 Base Hospital) from July, 1915, to September, 1920. There are 9 Commonwealth burials of the 1914-1918 war, 4 were brought in after the Armistice, there are 9 German burials, all of the 12th September, 1914, which were brought from Kisii Boma. There are also 47 Commonwealth burials of the 1939-1945 war.

This is an underfunded cemetery as most locals say its forgotten due to its status. Lying in an approximately 30 hectare of land, the cemetery located along the Mamboleo Muhoroni Road adjacent to murram quarries and clay brick kilns near a seasonal stream course in a very hard murram site, with graves arranged haphazardly all over the place with no fence or gate. The roads leading to the cemetery are dilapidated.

Currently being managed by the city department, one has to pay some amount to the city council which includes burial search per grave, grounds fees and that of digging the grave.

According to Kisumu county officials, most of the people buried at the site are infants, children and few adults including unclaimed bodies from the morgue. Most of the neighboring counties without a cemetery also rely on Mamboleo cemetery including Churches with orphanages amongst other families.

The official also expressed challenges of encroachment by locals whose homes are near the cemetery as some locals also harvest murram from the grave side. There is no single structure at the site for staffs working there and normally when it is raining, they have to stand under a tree to protect themselves from the rain.

“Most of the unclaimed bodies are buried at night, our staff have to be there and when they complete there work, they leave, sometime we even have people secretly burring at the site,” said an official in May 2020.

This grave is for the Muslims who follow the Sunni Islam. The majority of Muslims in Kenya follow the Sunni Islam of Shafi School of jurisprudence. The Cemetery is located about 200 metres from Lake Victoria along the Kisumu-Busia Road. Plans by the county government of Kisumu to relocate this cemetery were resisted by the locals.

The original idea to relocate the cemeteries in 2014 did not go down with the affection communities, which argued that the graveyards are part of their history and heritage and should not be tampered with. The relocation was tied to the ambitious Kisumu Integrated Strategic Urban Development plan that seeks to remodel Kisumu city so that it faces the lake. Sponsored by the French government, the plan was to be implemented over 30 years, and was to improve lighting, roads and social amenities in the lakeside town.

For clarity of information, it is important to note that Muslims are divided into two major groups, Sunnis and Shias. There are various sub-sects within each. All Shias believe in the Imamat – or spiritual leadership – of Ali, Prophet Muhammad’s son-in-law and fourth Caliph. After him, different sects follow different descendants of Ali as their Imam. Ismailis revere a number of Imams including Imam Ismail who died in 765 AD.

Ismailis interpret the Koran symbolically and allegorically and believe in a religious hierarchy.

This grave is for the Muslims who align themselves to the Ismaili. It is located about 200 metres from Lake Victoria along the Kisumu-Busia Road. The original idea to relocate the cemeteries in 2014 did not go down with the affection communities, which argued that the graveyards are part of their history and heritage and should not be tampered with.

The relocation was tied to the ambitious Kisumu Integrated Strategic Urban Development plan that seeks to remodel Kisumu city so that it faces the lake. Sponsored by the French government, the plan was to be implemented over 30 years, and was to improve lighting, roads and social amenities in the lakeside town.